Daily News Update

A giant solar farm that is powering a cheese processing facility in Northern Ireland has been launched.

The 5MW project is providing green electricity to Dale Farm’s cheddar cheese plant at Dunmanbridge in Cookstown and consists of 15,500 solar panels.

It will provide around 20% of the cheese factory’s power needs annually.

The project has been delivered in partnership with Dublin firm CES Energy and is expected to help reduce the farm’s carbon footprint.

Chris McAlinden, Group Operations Director at Dale Farm said: “Dale Farm is committed to leading the way in sustainability – with a strategy that sees us constantly assessing our processes and facilities to identify how we can reduce our carbon footprint and increase efficiency.

“This approach is about doing the right thing for the environment and ultimately making our business as lean as it can be so we can pay our farmer owners the best possible price for their milk. We are extremely proud to have developed a green energy solution that positions our operations at the vanguard of sustainability not just in dairy in Ireland but worldwide.”